440 O/i the Horse Sickness. 



obtaining 1 further experience of the disease. I paid particu- 

 lar attention to many sick animals, and prescribed for some 

 of them ; I also dissected many when dead. The result oi 

 this year's experience did not militate in any degree against 

 that obtained on the former occasions, — the symptoms during 

 life were the same, and also the principal features of the post 

 mortem examinations. In consequence of the greater number 

 of deaths, the field of observation at this period was necessa- 

 rily extended ; and 1 observed some appearances which es- 

 caped my observation, or which did not occur on the former 

 occasions. 



The head of the animal was sometimes swelled in an extra- 

 ordinary manner, but always from congestion ; I have re- 

 peatedly examined the brain in such cases, but have never 

 discovered the least indication of disease therein ; and the ap- 

 pearance and conduct of the animal during his illness have 

 never betrayed the slightest symptom of aberration of in- 

 tellect. 



Another appearance on dissection not noticed in the above 

 account, is a yellow gelatinous matter attached to the pleura, 

 or internal lining of the chest, which always indicates inflam- 

 mation. I have observed the same substance in the human 

 subject, arising from the same cause. I must also observe 

 that the frothy matter which flows from the nose of the horse 

 at the time of death, is generally considered as a symptom 

 peculiar to this particular disease in this animal. But long 

 experience has taught me that the same appearance, but in a 

 lesser degree, is observed in the human subject in the same 

 disease ; that is, an inflammation of the substance of the 

 lungs. No people of whom I ever read, or of whose diseases 

 I have had experience, are so liable to pulmonary complaints 

 as the Hottentots. It has been my lot to open many of them 

 after death ; and it is from the experience thus obtained that 

 I assert their liability to the disease in question; — in them I 

 have verv often observed the same frothy matter in the sub- 

 stance of the inflamed lungs, and the same exudation from the 

 nose after death. It is occasioned by the increased secretion 

 of mucus in the inflamed lung, and rupture of the minute air 

 cells. Accelerated motion necessarily increases the impetus 

 of the blood through the lungs, and consequently hastens the 

 termination of the disease. 



An unfortunate belief prevails in this District, that no 

 remedy is useful in this disease, and even by some persons it 

 is believed that all curative measures are prejudicial ; this 

 belief must be attributed to the fatal nature of the disease. 

 Some decry bleeding, and others purging — for both remedies I 

 have been tried, but without any regular plan of cure. It J 



